County timber payments plan moving fast in U.S. House, generating conflict and worry

Gallery: County timber payments plan moving fast in U.S. House (Photo Gallery)

WASHINGTON -- A proposal for replacing the county payments program, which provides millions of federal dollars to desperate rural counties in Oregon and beyond, will spring into the open on Thursday when a House committee considers legislation to replace the current - and politically unpopular - system for keeping local governments afloat.

It carries none of the elements - or focus - that Oregon Reps. Greg Walden, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader have been quietly assembling for months with the aim of selling as the best replacement for county payments.

The emergence of Hastings' bill and the unusually rapid arrival to the committee could complicate efforts by the Oregon lawmakers to win support for their idea, which would transform 2.4 million acres of O&C land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management property into two trusts, one managed for conservation and the other for commercial use to generate revenue for cash-starved rural counties.

“We will continue to work in good faith with the committee to integrate our bipartisan O&C proposal into the committee’s legislation as it moves through the legislative process," Walden, a Republican, and Democrats DeFazio and Schrader said in a joint statement released late in the day.

"Time is running short for our rural counties, and they deserve a long-term solution. We have finalized a discussion draft of our unique plan for the O&C lands and intend to release it tomorrow.”

The quick progression of Hastings' bill, which caught outside observers by surprise, will take place in the House Natural Resources Committee Thursday less than two days after the legislation was formally introduced.

Like the proposal from Walden, DeFazio and Schrader, Hastings' approach would also expand commercial activity.

That is where the similarity ends. Hastings requires that federal lands generate at least 60 percent of the income that was produced over an earlier period of time. That money would be deposited into a "trust fund" managed by the Treasury Department that would supply counties with money.

That concept is vastly different from the "trust" idea envisioned by the Oregon lawmakers, who would give management control of the property to a committee of local and state officials.

That approach is not included in the bill and the compressed time frame is highly unusual. Most bills are introduced and allowed to simmer for weeks before lawmakers take final action.

In a statement announcing the bill's mark-up, Hastings, who chairs the committee, said, "Active management of our national forests is necessary to help rural communities create jobs and fund roads, schools and emergency services.

"This bill provides a long-term solution that will generate a stable source of revenue for counties, put people back to work, stimulate rural economies and keep our forests healthy by establishing a sustainable plan to increase responsible timber production," he said.

One similarity to the Oregon effort is the ultimate goal - finding a new and sustainable way to provide funds to rural counties who economic choices are limited because they are surrounded by federal land.

At one time, those funds came from a portion of the revenue generated by commercial logging. When the amount of timber harvested plummeted, however, Congress approved direct payments to the counties began beginning in 2000. But with tight budgets and political differences between the mostly Western counties and other parts of the country, the future of those payments is dim.

The payments were also acknowledgement that the federal government should help local governments after logging on federal land was reduced. Counties receive 25 percent of the revenue from timber sales but when logging plummeted, so did revenue. By law, the money was to be used to finance public education. In 2008, $250 million poured into 33 Oregon counties from the program.

With payments expected to end this summer unless Congress extends them, county officials are warning that jails might close, law enforcement reduced, libraries closed among other drastic steps.

"This is like the DeFazio-Walden plan on steroids," Steve Pedery, conservation director for Oregon Wild said of Hastings' bill. "It shows what is likely to come out partnering with the House Republican leadership - a plan to exploit the impasse over county funding to ram through the wish list of special interests in the logging, mining, drilling, and grazing industries."

Critics also complained that they were largely kept out of negotiations that led to the bill and on requirements that environmental reviews of areas that will be commercially logged must be completed in 60 days and that managers have discretion to change practices more easily than on other federal property.